The Old Amazonian Switcheroo!
by wings4dreams
Summary: With the help of a magical vase, Shampoo makes a wish that is sure to make her closer to Ranma. Unfortunately, things become a little more complicated then she had originally planned. Ranma/Akane.
1. And so it starts

The Old Amazonian Switcheroo!!

by wings4dreams

an Ranma/Akane fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 and I am not profiting from this story.

Chapter 1

Shampoo smiled sweetly and calmly trying to hide her overwhelming anticipation from the elderly antique dealer as he rang up her item. She hoped that he would overlook her slight trembling for feminine jitters or something. She tried to appear as nonchalant as possible as he eyed her while taking her money. He did seem suspicious of her, but took the money from her anyway and let her get on her way. Apparently the old Chinese man was not about to turn down a great sell like this for anything even the dark Amazon magic in the item. Shampoo left the store quickly before he could change his mind.

Once outside she couldn't stop herself from giggling and twirling with glee. Acquiring the Whispering Vase was far easier then she had thought it would be. The old man knew the horrific dangers surrounding the vase, but since only the Amazon's could use it he thought it would be safe to sell it in Japan. He never would have guessed that there were any Amazons in Nermia, if he did he would never had come here. She laughed out loud as she ran home to find a place to use it. Shampoo was glad the man had guessed wrongly, this vase would finally get her everything she wanted, starting with Ranma.

The young girl reached the Cat Café in record time. Throwing a quick 'Nihoa' to her great grandmother and a raspberry at the half blind bus boy behind the counter she raced to her room. Chest still heaving from the exertion of running all that way, she wasted no time popping the cork from the vase. Shampoo frowned when nothing happened. "Hello." She called in the flowered vase's pit . "Someone talk to Shampoo."

A puff of smoke hit her in the face, she coughed and waved it away. "I am a terrible evil monster!" the vase sounded. "I will destroy you! You will only know despair and pain! I am evil! _Eeeevill_!! Bwah ha ha!!"

"Vase is too too rude." Shampoo scolded. "You no should treat mighty _Amazon_ this way!"

"An Amazon you say?" The vase sweat dropped. "Well, that changes things…" Thick dark smoke filled the room and a figure began to take shape in the wisps. It wasn't long before a powerful torso solidified itself in the middle of the room. "Behold!" His voice thundered. "I am the enchanted Jin of the whispering vase!"

"Shampoo behind you." The girl deadpanned.

"oops…" He turned to look for her. "I haven't done this in a long…" the words caught in his throat the moment he saw the beautiful violet haired beauty looking at him. "…wow…" he breathed.

Shampoo rolled her eyes. "Stop gawking and give Shampoo her wish."

The Jin blinked out of his stupor, "Oh right! You have a wish coming to you…wink if the wish is for a boyfriend I might be able to help without magic…"

Shampoo snorted. "Shampoo have strong man already." She crossed her arms over her chest.

The Jin pouted. "figures. I spend a thousand years trapped in a lamp and when I finally meet the girl of my dreams she loves someone else…" He shook his head as if to shake the depressing thoughts from his mind. "So, what's your heart's desire, stunner?"

"Shampoo wish to trade place with Akane! Shampoo become Akane and Akane become Shampoo! If Shampoo live with Ranma… Aiya! Ranma will belong me in no time!"

"Your wish will be granted, ah yes ...I will swoop up and make it happen! That's right…your wish will be just as you say…" he paused to look at the violet haired beauty. "Exactly every word…uh… if you wanted to stop me now is the time…"

"Stop you stupid talking and make wish true!" Shampoo growled at him.

He sighed. "Okay but don't say I didn't warn you…" Magic began to swirl around the room and the Jin began to glow, as power surged through him. Yet something in his expression changed and a sweat drop formed on his face. The magic dissipated. He sighed " I can't do it."

"What you mean! Jin can grant wish! Shampoo follow all rules! No ask for kill, no ask for 'fall in love', no ask for impossible thing!"

The Jin shook his head. "It's not that, Stunner. Your wish won't get you what you want. If I switch out you and this 'Akane' chick, I really won't be doing anything. You become her in all since of the word and her you so…nothing changes. Except then you'll be one wish short…er, do you understand?"

Shampoo shook her head.

"Us Jins are supposed to trick mortals out of their wishes if at all possible, but I really like you so I'm gonna do you a favor instead."

"Shampoo listening…"

"Here's what I'll do, I won't change destiny like your wish states. Instead I'll make an illusion, I'll put you in Akane's place, but you will keep your own memories. Everyone else, however, will have their memories altered to believe this lie, her family's memories will be of you in her place. The same will go for Akane in your place she'll keep her name but not her memories. Still following me here?"

Shampoo nodded. "Think so."

"Before I do this I have a warning for you, This is _only_ an illusion and not permanent. If someone were really clever they could figure out fairly easily the switch and your wish. Were that to happen that person will recover all their old memories."

"So is not forever…"

"No, but if the reason you can't get close to Ranma is because you don't live with him, then this will change that. If you guys fall in love, it will be for real, even if the old memories of everyone come back. That also means any feelings everyone already possesses won't change because of the memory altering. You still want to do this? Or do you want to change your wish?"

The Amazon grinned. "Is ready."

The Jin smirked. "Alright! And away…we…go!"

There was a bright flash and everything went blank.

OOOOOO

Shampoo awoke with a start at the loud rapping on her door. "What?!" She cried irritably. If it was Mousse she was gonna crack some skulls.

"Yo, Shampoo! Wake up and get ready or we're gonna be late for school!"

Shampoo gasped in pleasure as she sat up quickly. "Ranma!" She could hear his footsteps as he traveled further into the house. Shampoo grinned as she took in her surroundings. This was definitely Akane's room, that stupid Jin had done something right after all. Now it was up to her to work her magic on Ranma.

"Well, you look chipper this morning!" A cheerful voice chimed in the room.

Shampoo started. She looked around trying to find the annoying Jin who was still hanging around for some reason. "Where is you?"

"Right here, look down."

The Amazon did as she was instructed and found a small snowy haired ferret sitting on her lap. "Aiya! What you doing here?"

The ferret smirked cutely. "Just looking out for you, Stunner, I'll help you in any way I can, just in case you have any confusion about the oddities in this reality."

Shampoo smiled at the small creature, genuinely grateful for the assistance. "Thanks."

In a flurry of movement Shampoo was quickly dressed in a Furinkun High school girls' uniform and headed down the stairs to find her future husband. She smiled lovingly at him as she sat down next to him at the breakfast table. "Nihoa, Ranma." The little ferret on her shoulder snarled at him ferociously

Ranma barely grunted in greeting as he was too busy shoveling food in his face to pay her much attention.

Shampoo was unfazed, she knew that if she were patient he would finally belong to her and Akane would be completely out of the picture. She couldn't help the small thrill that zipped though her at that revelation. She was so deep in her thoughts that she did not notice Ranma finishing his breakfast, or him getting up and heading for the door.

Nabiki woke her from her inner reprieve. "Hey, sis, Ranma just left you know…"

Shampoo gasped. "Aiya! Why husband go?" Hurriedly she stood and moved to make her exit only to be stopped by Kasumi.

"Here's your lunch, Shampoo. Have a good day, okay? Make sure you study hard."

"Okay, thank you. Bye bye." The Amazon headed out the door in hot pursuit of Ranma.

Nabiki turned to Kasumi with a bored half lidded gaze. "Odd isn't it? How our little sister is Chinese while the both of us are Japanese?"

Kasumi gave Nabiki a look of surprise. "Hasn't it always been that way?"

Nabiki frowned. "Hm."

OOOOOO

Outside on the street Shampoo had finally caught up to the object of her affection. "Ranma! Why you no wait for Shampoo?"

"Huh?" Ranma turned his restless gaze toward Shampoo suddenly as if noticing her for the first time. "Oh, sorry, Shampoo." He immediately went back to searching his surroundings urgently.

"_Ooh, sorry shampooo_…bleh! I can't stand this guy…" The little voice of the ferret muttered in her ear. She shrugged the shoulder it was riding on to silence it. "What Ranma look for?" she asked the pigtailed martial artist curiously.

His face fell. "I guess nothing…"

Shampoo frowned at the crestfallen Ranma, wondering what it was he was waiting for. "We go now, yes?"

Ranma sighed dejectedly. "Yes…" he didn't appear to be in any hurry to leave.

Suddenly a sharp "Hya!" split the air and out of no where an angry figure descended upon Ranma, who just barely avoided being dropped kicked. The attacker was not happy about missing. "Grr! Hold still!"

Ranma laughed at the other's aggravation. "Yo, Akane! What's up?"

Shampoo was reeling, why the heck was Akane there and more importantly why was she attacking Ranma? "Akane, why you more violent then usual?" she queried toward the girl punching at air as Ranma danced playfully away from her fists.

"I already told you, Shampoo, I won't rest until I've defeated Ranma!"

"Why?"

Ranma decided to answer for the enraged girl. "Aw, she's just a sore loser. I defeated her last week, and she's all cross about it…" he leapt up onto a fence out of Akane's reach and began to make faces at her. "Dummy, it's not like I did it on purpose..."

Shampoo's voice became cold. "So Akane is Shampoo rival, She give Ranma kiss of marriage…"

The other girl froze mid punch, she paled visibly. "N-no it wasn't a real defeat so…"

Ranma became incoherent. "k-kiss?...M-m-m marraige!?" He fell off the fence onto his head. Recovering quickly he hopped to his feet and advanced on the girl who had been attacking him all week. She appeared to be trembling slightly and muttering something about keeping secrets from her grandmother. He got right in her face. "If you want to kiss me or something you can just forget it! There's no way I'm kissing you Nu uh! Nope! I'm not kissing an uncute…" his face was only inches from Akane's, and she had to back petal quickly, to avoid his forward momentum. "…unsexy, brutish, tomboy, like you!" that said he pinched his eyes closed and puckered his lips.

Shampoo suddenly booted Ranma in the general direction of Furinkun High, "No be late to school, Ranma!" she cried, before directing an angry glare towards Akane. "Ranma be Shampoo husband, no Akane husband!"

Akane stared strangely at the purple haired Tendo, as if seeing her for the first time. "How did you know about the kiss of marriage, Shampoo?"

Shampoo sniffed haughtily, "No be so dumb, Akane! Is too too obvious that Shampoo her self is a mighty Ama…Ah!" She reached up to rub at her bitten ear, a harsh whisper of 'do you want her to know everything!?' came from the ferret. Suddenly she changed the direction of her sentence. "…ah, ama-zing guesser!"

"I…see." Akane turned to glare in the direction of the school. "Tomarrow, Ranma, I'll defeat you then…" With that declared the short haired girl took off.

Shampoo looked down at the ferret crossly. "You better tell, Shampoo, exactly what things you change here."

OOOOOO

to be continued..

A/N sorry about any grammer or spelling mistakes you encounter.


	2. Ao

Chapter 2

"Alright, here's the plan…" The tiny ferret on her shoulder said. "You keep walking to school and I'll explain a few things on the way there."

Shampoo shook her head stubbornly. "No care about school, you tell Shampoo why is things so weird now."

The Jin sighed. "You have to go to school, Shampoo, you're in Akane's life and she goes to school everyday. "

Shampoo rolled her eyes. "Whatever." But without further argument she headed in the school's direction. "Is going, so now you tell Shampoo why Akane attack Ranma."

The little ferret scurried to the top of her head finding the perch there far more comfortable. "Well, I know you were expecting me to switch you guys, and life to be the same as it was, but there were a few problems. Firstly, can you really envision Akane crying out 'husband' and throwing herself all over Ranma?" He didn't wait for a reply, "Of course not! The magic arranged things in a way that would match your personalities. It's the only way to keep the illusion longer. Things have to be relatively logical to all involved. Kinda like…the way things _would_ be if you were really the youngest Tendo and Akane a real Amazon."

Shampoo was suspicious. "How you know what things Akane would do or not do?"

The ferret rested it's head on its paw. "Omniscience, all Jin's have a little bit…" He gazed at the sky. It looked like there were dark clouds forming in the distance. "Hmm, it looks like it'll rain later…"

"Aiya! Shampoo curse give her away for certain!"

The ferret smirked towards the sky. "No worries, babe, until Akane regains her memories you don't have to worry about that…heh."

Sampoo's face set into a thoughtful scowl, she wondered what exactly the magic of the wish had changed…

OOOOOO

School turned out to be a tediously boring thing to Shampoo, the only exception is the joy of getting to sit so close to Ranma for most classes. She gazed on his sleeping figure lovingly…

"Eyes front, Miss Tendo." The teacher deadpanned, without even turning around.

The class twittered in mirth as the teacher, once again, caught Shampoo staring at her fiancée.

Shampoo glared angrily at the man droning on at the chalkboard. How dare a lowly _man_ tell her what to do!? Her arms still ached from when he made her hold buckets in the hall. He even made her keep the Jin hidden in her bag, so as not to disturb the class or whatever. She crossed her arms across her chest plotting revenge against the disrespectful man.

Next to her Ranma finally awoke from his nap, and he soon realized that the class was almost over. Leaning over towards the girl sitting next to him he whispered. "_Yo, Shampoo, can I copy your notes_?"

Shampoo blinked at him curiously. "What is…notes…?"

His head fell to the table. "I'm doomed."

"Ah, Mr. Saotome, I see you've finally decided to join us." The teacher turned to eye Ranma sternly. "You will be please to know that all the things covered today will be on the upcoming test, class dismissed."

"Aw, man…" Ranma clutched at his hair.

Shampoo frowned not understanding what the problem was. Who cares about school when you are a great warrior?

Ranma sighed. "Come on, Shampoo, let's go…."

For lunch the two decided to eat outside by the tall oak in the courtyard. Shampoo had to admit that the oldest Tendo sure knew how to cook some delicious food. She fed some to the hungry ferret on her shoulder as well.

Ranma stared at the sky in dread. "Its getting darker and darker…probably going to be a downpour pretty soon…just great."

Shampoo was more then a little worried herself, but after a glance toward the Jin she felt reassured.

"Hi Ranma, Hi Shampoo," Ukyo approached them and sat down handing Ranma some papers "Notes from today's class." She said.

"Yes! Ucchan, you're a lifesaver!"

Shampoo glared at the other girl bitterly, "What spatula-girl want? Try to steal Ranma away from Shampoo with notes?"

Ukyo blushed crimson. "No! No way! I mean…he is, uh…that is I do…Argh! You guys made it pretty clear when we met that you are in love, and I'm not the type of girl to come between committed relationships…" she appeared crestfallen.

Shmapoo hugged Ranma's arm tightly. "Is right."

Ranma was blushing and sweating. He waved his other arm franticly. "No! We're not in love! It was something our parents arranged!"

Ukyo turned away hurt. "The things you say and the things you do are very different…"

Ranma desperately tried to push the nuzzling Shampoo off his lap. "Cut it out, Shampoo!"

"An opening!"

Ranma and Shampoo leapt apart just in time to avoid the bamboo shaft that struck the ground where they were sitting.

"Akane!" The three teens cried out in surprise, although Ranma sounded more pleased then surprised.

"I missed." She muttered. She watched him get into a defensive stance and frowned. "I'm not here to fight you. I'm here because of work."

Ranma seemed confused. "Then why did you…" he pointed towards the deep impact mark by the tree.

Akane blushed, her eyes darting in Shampoo's direction. "No reason." She rested the bamboo staff on her shoulder her other hand carrying a large takeout box.

Ukyo smirked nudging the other girl playfully, "and I suppose you carry around that bamboo staff for work as well, huh?"

Akane became sheepish. "Actually I do…"

"Look! That cute Cat Café girl is here again!"

Akane's presence suddenly became known to others in the courtyard and a herd of guys started running in her direction. Eagerly advancing on the scantily clad girl in Amazonian dress "Honestly," she muttered, "Why can't they leave me alone…"

"She brought take out!"

"Give it to me!"

"Join me for lunch!"

"Feed me my lunch!"

"I love you!"

Akane pointed the bamboo staff in their direction. "Stay back." She warned. "This is for Kuno and I have to get it to him in the next few minutes or it's free…" the warning fell on def ears, they continued to run at her like crazy people. She sighed and turned her head toward the threesome behind her, "I'll see you guys around…and Ranma…next time I'll defeat you for sure!" She charged into the fray with vigor knocking many of the guys into the air.

Ukyo seemed puzzled. "Should we help her?"

Ranma shrugged nonchalant. "Trust me, you should avoid helping her at all costs…" yet despite his carefree demeanor, his eyes stayed glued to the fighting girl…just in case.

Shampoo looked at Ranma oddly. He usually jumps right in when Akane is in any kind of trouble, but now, not only is he not helping he's telling them to not help either. Shampoo smiled at the ferret, maybe this illusion thing will work after all.

A low rumble tripped through the thick dark sky above them, but the teens were too preoccupied with watching Akane beat off the Furinkun high boys to notice. Akane defeated her adversaries in no time. She stood panting in the middle of the court yard.

"She's not bad…" the ferret whispered in an awed voice into Shampoo's ear.

The purple haired girl huffed. "Shampoo much much better!"

The ferret blinked. "Really?"

"Yes, Shampoo train hard! No want to lose to outsider male. No want marrage, but is happy lose to Ranma."

The ferret turned its attention back to the short haired girl still standing there.

Suddenly Kuno stepped out into the field. "Ah, to think that such a beauty, is also endowed with the grace and fierceness of a…"

"…Dump truck." Ranma supplied. Earning glares from both of the figures standing in the field.

"…wild tiger..." Kuno corrected dourly. He arched his bokken towards the sky, dramatically lighting flashed behind him. "My tigress…date with meee!" He ran at her with arms spread wide.

Akane planted a foot in his face, and taking advantage of his 'frozen in pain' state, she hooked the take out box on the tip of the bokken. "I'm on time, pay up."

His face still plastered against her foot, he reached into his pocket and handed her some money.

She counted quickly, and satisfied that she had the full amount she removed her foot. Her stern face becoming friendly. "Thanks, Kuno-san." Tossing a glare in Ranma's direction, she left the school grounds.

Kuno stood there dumbly for a minute before leaving to eat his rather expensive lunch.

Ukyo seemed a little stunned. "Does this happen a lot? Guess I should start eating outside again… Why did those guys come at her like that? "

Ranma shrugged. "I don't know. It's something that only started recently…"

Nabiki's voice chimed in behind them suddenly. "I can tell you why…for a price" she held out her hand expectantly.

Ranma reached into his pockets and found only air, he looked pleadingly towards Shampoo, who sniffed and turned away. She was apparently not too concerned with Akane's problems. He turned towards Ukyo who sighed and handed Nabiki some money. "Okay, spill it." she muttered.

Nabiki smirked pocketing the money. "Well, Akane is a bit of a hot item, not only at this school, but at a few others. Places where she may have delivered to or what not."

Ranma shook his head peeved. "All this fuss over an unsexy girl like that? I think someone needs to go around and beat some since into those guys." He pounded his fist into his palm.

Nabiki quirked an eyebrow in Ranma's direction, "Hmm, If I didn't know that you were already engaged to my sister, I would think that you were jealous..." she ignored Ranma's cry of 'No way!' and continued on. "Mostly the guys have been flocking to the cat café in hopes of getting closer to her, but she generally doesn't acknowledge them. So when some of them noticed that Akane gives Ranma a lot of attention through fighting, they decided to get her attention that way as well."

Ukyo was disgusted at how popular Akane was without even trying. "Seriouly," she muttered at Nabiki. "What does she have that I don't…"

Nabiki held out her hand expectantly.

Ukyo shook her head. "That question was rhetorical."

Nabiki shrugged. She turned in her 'sister's' direction, "actually, Shampoo, I was wondering something…"

"What?"

"I was thinking about getting a little something for our dear older sister, but I can't seem to recall what her favorite color is. You'll tell me won't you?"

Ranma starred at Nabiki incredulously. "That's easy! It's…"

Nabiki raised a hand to silence him. She gazed at Shampoo expectantly.

Shampoo realized that Nabiki must have realized something was off and was testing her. This was bad. Shampoo opened her mouth to give her best guess, when the school bell suddenly rang signaling everyone to go back to class. "Bye bye." She said instead and raced inside, quickly going to her class and finding her seat. She didn't even wait to see if Ranma followed her. Internally she was reeling. No way could the mercenary girl figure it out in so little time, right? She plucked the Jin off her shoulder, looking to him for some reassurance, but his words made her feel even grimmer.

"She's on to you." He murmured his eyes worried.

She nodded and gently placed the ferret into her bag. This afternoon she would pay a visit to her great-grandmother's cafe. She was going to need some help if Nabiki really had figured things out.

OOO

To be continued…

Thanks for the support, truthfully I'm a terrible writer and I wasn't even sure I would continue this. However, seeing that I got some positive feedback, I'll continue to write it as long as someone out there enjoys it. Thanks.


	3. Kiiro

Chapter 3

When school had finally let out that afternoon, torrential rain was falling imprisoning kids who forgot their umbrellas in the school's front hall. Shampoo and Ranma looked at each other.

"I don't suppose you brought an umbrella, Shampoo?" he asked.

She shook her head.

He sighed. "Guess we're stuck here then. There's nothing that could make me go out in that." He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Shampoo no care if stuck with husband." She hugged him affectionately.

"Shampoo!" He cried pulling at her arms trying to get her to release him. Little did he realize that a snowy ferret was trying to do the same on the other side of her.

Somewhere in the back of the crowd behind Ranma and Shampoo a voice cried out. "Principle Kuno is coming!! He has hair clippers!!!"

The panicked crowd shot out into the rain taking Ranm and Shampoo with them. Shampoo felt the cold droplets over her and she sank to the ground in horror. "No!" she cried.

"What? Are you okay?!" The ferret called a few feet away. He jotted over to her. "You're fine." He sighed relieved.

Shampoo looked at her hands, her _human_ hands, she hadn't changed. She couldn't help the joyful laugh that escaped her. She stood up and tilted her face toward the pouring sky, a smile glued to her lips. She was so engrossed in her joy that she was not expecting to be suddenly tackled, avoiding a snipping sound that had been by her ear. She looked up to see that girl-type Ranma had saved her from getting a nasty haircut from a crazy guy with a tree in his head. She felt her heart flutter. "Ranma…"

Onna-Ranma stood glaring at the principle who was grinning fiendishly. "Leave her alone!"

"Fine din! I'll be comin' after you and I'll be takin' dat pigtail! Hahahahaha!" The principle leapt toward Ranma clippers raised threateningly.

Ranma smirked in challenge. He wiggled his fingers in a 'come and get it' kind of fashion, after the day he had Ranma was gladly in the mood for a fight.

"Stop right there!" A muffled female voice called out. "I can not allow you to hurt that girl!" A terrifying looking person wearing a thick dowdy rain coat that looked like something out of '_I know what you did last summer'_, leapt out to face Principle Kuno. On her face was an emotionless stark white mask, her eyes seemed black and soulless. She wore the mask in an attempt to keep her identity a secret.

Ranma's smirk melted away and he groaned instead. "Dummy!" He called to the masked figure. "Stop butting into my fights!"

"No can do." the figure said patting the smaller redhead on her shoulder. "I swore to protect you and I'll do so…even at the cost of my own life."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Yeah I know, and it's pretty damn irritating." Despite the disguise Ranma would know her anywhere. It was beyond him why he didn't just reveal her…no wait, it was because she didn't know that the red haired girl she protected and the pigtailed boy she attacked were one and the same. He didn't feel the need to enlighten her.

The figure ran towards the Principle but Ranma got there first booting the Principle away. He watched him fly away with a great level of remorse. "Aw man I was really looking forward to dragging that out too…" He turned an angry glare to the masked person who had just spoiled his fun.

"Listen!" Onna-Ranma hollered at her through the pouring rain. "One of these days you're gonna get yourself hurt trying to take on my fights. Just stay out of my way!"

The figure simply shook her head, and met his angry gaze with a determined one of her own.

Shampoo stared at the newcomer in contemplation…"Mask girl is too too friendly with Shampoo husband. Grrr…If only Shampoo could know who that mask girl is!!"

The damp, matted ferret on her shoulder gave her an incredulous look. "You're kidding right? How can you _not_ know that that is Akane?" he hung his head silently crying. "Why is it always the beautiful ones that are so dimwitted?"

Shampoo angrily snatched the ferret off her shoulder and threw him on the ground and stomped on him a few times before walking towards her rival. "Shampoo show all who mask girl is!" and before Akane could stop her she yanked back the hood.

A scream went out and a murmur of horror swept through the bystanders…Standing petrified with the empty coat clutched in her hand was Shampoo, and the girl she tried to expose had disappeared, leaving only her clothes behind.

"…she was a ghost…." someone whispered.

"One second she was there and the next she was gone…" a male student said to another.

"I'm not worried…we have nothing to fear as long as Ranma is here." That statement seemed to reassure everyone.

"That's right," someone else said. "If Ranma's not afraid we shouldn't be either…"

Ranma stepped toward the clothes a worried frown on his face. He squatted next to the pile his hand touching the face of the creeping looking mask. He looked up, his troubled gaze meeting Shampoo's bewildered one.

She shrugged, and slowly shook her head. "Wha…"

"Sh!" Ranma suddenly interrupted. A soft rustling sound was heard under the gaze less stark white mask. A finger to his lips he looked at Shampoo as he reached toward the mask and the empty pile of clothes.

The anxious crowd gathered around closer curious to see what Ranma would uncover. At this point no one even noticed the harsh rain or flashes of light in the sky. They were too wrapped up in the movement under the mask.

With hard yank, Ranma pulled back the mask to reveal…nothing. "Huh, I guess that…" he suddenly stopped talking as he registered that a strange weight was pressed against his chest. When he had lifted the mask so suddenly it had yank something from the pile onto his breasts.

Everyone who was gathered around closed the gap even more around Ranma, wondering what could give the strongest fighter in the whole school pause, but they saw nothing in the clothes.

Ranma's own eyes were still glued to the clothing pile, almost instinctively he knew exactly what had glomped onto him and he couldn't bring himself to look at it. Mustering every ounce of courage he had he reached his hand towards his chest and felt the wet matted hair of an animal clinging there. This fact alone was not reason enough for him to panic...

The small animal let out a small noise, "Meow."

…however this sound was more then enough to panic at. Ranma jumped up screaming in absolute terror. "Get it off!!! Get it off!!" He ran around desperately.

The students seeing Ranam react in such fear knew that something must be seriously wrong. Ranma was yelling 'get it off' at some unseen force, he must be getting pressed by a ghost! Suddenly they realized that a vengeful spirit must have been unleashed in the court yard. Soon all the students were running around screaming.

"Ahhh!"

"We're under attack!!"

"It's every man for himself!"

"We're all gonna DIE!!!"

The kitty clinging to the red-haired girl's front hung on for dear life. It was not exactly sure what was happening or why this girl was so spooked. Over it's shoulder it saw that the red-haired girl was racing breakneck speed toward a tree in the courtyard. The kitty knew it had to protect this girl no matter what the cost, but with its puny cat body there was little that could be done. In a desperate attempt, the kitty turned and thrust its head way out front hoping in some small way that this simple gesture would somehow ease the redhead's collision.

Luckily for the small creature, the redhead suddenly stopped her mad dash and fell to the ground muttering incoherently. The kitty found itself being unceremoniously plucked from the bosom of the red-haired girl by a person she only knew as Ranma's fiancée, Shampoo. It quirked it's head to the side wondering what Shampoo wanted with her. "Mew?" it asked curiously.

Shampoo tucked the little cat under her arm and walked steadily through the throng of still panicking students, only to drop the kitty off by it's clothes. Truthfully Shampoo didn't want to help the indigo blue cat in any way, but she knew she needed to get it away from Ranma. It was super embarrassing to see Ranma acting like such a coward. Checking one more time on Ranma to make sure he was okay, she retrieved her smashed ferret and headed in the direction of the Cat Café.

OOOO

"Ohh my head…" The ferret muttered as it woke up to the gentle rhythm of Shampoo's graceful walking. "What happened?" He left her arms to move to his preferred perch on her shoulder.

"'_What happen_?'" Shampoo repeated dourly. "Everything crazy is what happen! Why you no warn Shampoo that Akane now has curse?!"

The Jinn sighed "My omniscience doesn't work that way…I mean I know a lot, but…only generally. It's like watching a movie you haven't seen in years, you may remember the plot, but the details are a little sketchy…"

"Hmph!" She turned her head away from him angrily.

"I promise to help more from now on, okay?"

"Okay."

The ferret saw the building they were approaching and realized something. "You're here to tell your Great-grandmother aren't you?"

"Yes."

"You can't do that! Trust me on this the less people who know the better! It's bad enough that Nabiki is figuring this out, but you want to bring in someone voluntarily?"

"Great-grandmother can help much better then stupid ferret."

"Ouch…for the record I can help you too! Like uh…Mousse!"

"Shampoo no care about duck-boy!"

The ferret seemed insulted, "Well, you better care! He's not as dumb as you think and you're on a whole new playing field now! He's not going to be mooning over you like some love sick bulldog anymore! In fact he sees you as a spoilt Japanese girl now. It's Akane he thinks he has kinship with, not you. All it would take for him to see through the illusion is for you to speak Mandarin around him, or to understand him if he speaks Mandarin, you need to be on your toes!" The ferret smiled smugly glad to prove he was useful after all. He suddenly noticed something, "Hey, the rain stopped."

The jinn's words bothered her. "Ferret is wrong!"

"No, seriously, look at the sky…"

"Mousse always loves Shampoo!"

"Oh, that," The jinn shook his head. "He may have strong feelings for you, but he'll push them to the side thinking you're a stranger…uh oh, we're here." The ferret immediately stopped talking and wore the glossy expression of a dumb animal.

Shampoo saw that a few feet away Mousse was wiping the rain off of the out door tables. She approached him and loudly cleared her throat. "Excuse me."

He looked up at her a second, then immediately went back to work.

"Excuse me." She repeated anger lacing her voice. Once again she was ignored. She grabbed his arm. "Can you take Shampoo to owner please?" she ground out.

He looked at her blankly. "No speak the Japanese." Then under his breath he muttered in mandarin, " if you want to see the owner go find her yourself, and take your squeaky Mickey Mouse voice with you… " he turned from her to continue buffing the table.

Shampoo grabbed a nearby chair in anger and lifted above her head, how dare Mousse talk so disrespectful to her!

"Wait!" The ferret hissed in her ear. "You can't let him know that you know that he insulted you!"

Grumbling she placed the chair back down. "Sorry to bother you." She said to his back and turning she made her way into the Cat Café. "Stupid Mousse." She muttered, not knowing why his callous attitude hurt her so much.

Once inside the café she dropped all premises and expertly made her way behind the counter to the kitchen where her Great-grandmother was making ramen.

The old woman cackled when she saw the purple haired girl approach her. "Ah, Great-granddaughter, I was wondering when you were going to pay me a visit."

Shampoo blinked in surprise. "Great-grandmother figure truth out?"

"Well, not at first, the illusion's a good one I'll give you that. It's clever the way it fits each of the girls' individual characters into their new life." Cologne spotted the ferret on Shampoo's shoulder and snatched it up. "What do we have here?"

"Uh, I'm the Jin ma'am, at your service, er Shampoo's service anyway…"

"What's your name?" She asked him.

"Just call me Jinn." The ferret nervously twitched under her close scrutiny.

"Hmm…so why are you hanging around my granddaughter even after the wish is made? jinns don't normally take interest in their masters, unless there's some kind of personnel gain to be had."

"I like Shampoo a lot and I wanted to make sure she isn't confused and make mistakes. Everything's different now with her and Akane switched as they are."

Cologne's eyes narrow to slits, suspicion heavy in her. "Then you could have simply put all the differences directly in her mind. Why are you playing at being a guide?"

The Jinn clammed up simmering in anger.

Cologne handed the ferret back to Shampoo, but with a warning, "Don't believe everything this creature tells you. jinns are notorious liars and deceivers. It's unlikely he'd help you no matter how attractive he may have found you. No doubt this mischievous creature has an agenda of his own…"

"It's not true!" The jinn cried out.

Shampoo took the ferret back in her arms. "Shampoo trust him." She stated.

The jinn let out a sigh of relief.

Cologne became thoughtful, "So Akane believes herself to be an Amazon, eh?"

Shampoo nodded. "Great-grand mother, why Akane protecting female type Ranma?"

The elderly woman chuckled. "What a fun illusion this is…apparently your personalities are very different, when you saw strange, bedraggled travelers eating your first place prize you grew angry and inadvertently fought and lost to the red haired girl. This resulted in you giving her the kiss of death. However, when Akane saw them she must have felt sympathy and allowed the travelers to eat her food reasoning to us that since it's her prize she can do what she wants with it. heh, even in my memories she only speaks Japanese…

Here's where it gets interesting, I'm not sure of the details, but in some way Ranma must have done something to directly save Akane's life…and as every Amazon knows this is a fate worst then death."

Shampoo was filled with horror. "Kiss of life…"

Cologne nodded. "That's right, Akane is now sworn to protect the red haired girl till death, and should the red haired girl die, Akane must take her own life and follow her to the beyond…most Amazons who give the Kiss of Life can live long fulfilled lives, for how often is the average person in danger? But as you and I both know Ranma is not like average people. When Mousse and I realized the danger Akane was in we followed her here in hopes to help her out or maybe even find a loop hole that would release her from her servitude."

Shampoo sighed. "Akane is terrible warrior to need save in first place."

"Yes, she is a terrible warrior." Cologne agreed. "However she is far more studious and versed in Amazon lore then you are, using the old Amazon magics, she developed a small pendent to ware around her ankle that would alert her anytime that female Ranma is in trouble…" The elderly monarch gasped in realization. Her panicked eyes turned to the ferret's in desperation. "Tell me! Will Akane retain the memories of this fake life when she reverts back to her normal self? You wretched creature, is she going to know intimate details of the deepest Amazonian secrets?!"

The jinn ducked away under the tiny woman's fiery anger. "I-I'm not sure…"

"This is bad." Cologne whispered.

Shampoo became grim. "Akane need die…" Truthfully despite the fact that they were rivals, Shampoo knew Akane rather well and the thought of killing her brought the Amazon warrior no joy.

"Not necessarily…" the monarch murmured. She suddenly cackled in delight. "Great-granddaughter, we may have a way of killing two birds with one stone. You will get to keep your husband and Akane will be safely out of our way…" She raced upstairs to the room they kept their carrier pigeon, Shampoo following closely.

Once there she quickly wrote out a note and tied it to the birds leg, without further ado she released the animal into the air. "Fly swiftly to the arms of my village." She called after it. Turning to her great-granddaughter she said "hurry Shampoo make as many fliers as you can and distribute them around this town and the next! Let every male near and far know that to defeat the Amazon Akane in battle is to _marry_ her!"

'_This…_' the ferret thought with a grin. '_Is going to be fun…_'

OOOOOO

Till next time…

Also I just wanted to respond to a few of the comments that you guys left me.

First of all thank you for the positive feedback it was truthfully more then I was hoping for. I sincerely hope you guys will continue to enjoy it.

jdcocoagirl, Habana, Esoteric Memories, LilyEvans777, Makoga – thanks for supporting this fic I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Adrichan – sorry about the confusion, I'm not really sure how to explain it differently. Rather then switch the two permanently where they are both kinda trapped in the wish, I wanted to make it more in everyone's head. So that some would have the opportunity to figure it out and take advantage of the ones who didn't…that's still confusing, isn't it? sigh…

Tellemicus Sundance – I really am fond of Shampoo and I do plan on making her likable, I want to paint her character as having a lot more substance then just glomping Ranma and hatching evil plans…although she will be doing both. It may seem that I focus a lot on Akane, but Shampoo is the hero of this fic. Of course I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to write 'Shampoo speech' all the time ;

Ambulatory Kettle – Thanks, trust me I take it as a compliment and I do hope to improve some as I go along. I am interested in the pre reader thing, but I don't know at all how to go about it…

TL – you are so right! Heheheh...

You guys inspired the creative bug in me that I didn't even know was there…


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